Kingsbridge Fire and W. 231st Street

[ndembowski]

It was shocking to see the devastation of this morning’s fire on the south side of 231st Street west of Broadway.  I am relieved to know that no one was killed and I hope the injured individual recovers fully.  Nonetheless, it is probably a real-life nightmare for the store owners and workers that made that block the commercial center of Kingsbridge.  I hope that the workers don’t experience too much hardship.

I don’t have a date on the photo below but I imagine it is the late 1940s (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong):

It is amazing to see the Columbia florist in the same spot that it was in as of yesterday.

This is not the first time in history that Kingsbridge was ravaged by fire.  120 years ago multiple blocks were annihilated by a large fire in the same general area:

A couple of historical notes about that block…  If you look at the shape of the buildings in the below screenshot, you will see that they have an odd trapezoidal shape right above the chyron lettering.

Those irregular lots owe their shape to the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris railroad, which once cut across the corner of today’s W. 231st Street and Broadway.  Compare the below 1885 map on the left to the later property map on the right:

That railroad cut through the small hill that you climb when walking west toward Kingsbridge Avenue, which took the form of a small overpass over the railroad at 231st Street.  Here is a photo of the cut after the tracks were removed:

The rock cut was blasted through in 1870:

Explosions aside, it was a very dangerous arrangement for the growing neighborhood to have the railroad and rockcuts criss-crossing the neighborhood and led to some bad accidents at that corner (from the 2/4/1898 New York Herald):

Shortly after the above accident, the neighborhood petitioned to have the railroad rerouted.

 

[ndembowski]

Correction:  I was just told that the Columbia Florist was NOT in the same location in the old photo, but rather a couple of stores down.

[Peter Ostrander]

From news video reports the fire seemed to have started or was the largest in the corner deli , Cold Cut City at the SE Corner of Kingsbridge Ave and 231st St. For those who remember it was the location of a great German bar and restaurant, Ehrings Tavern. News reports state that 6 business were lost during the fire.  Touch time especially during the holiday season.

[Timfromthemainland]

Also in Kingsbridge maybe three years ago (sorry to be so imprecise on the date in a history group) a fire destroyed several businesses on Bailey Ave. and W. 238th St. including the deli on the corner, Tilila Bar & Grill, a small mom and pop Dominican restaurant, and a Chinese takeout place where the fire started. The laundromat and Khalle were undamaged.

[Author]

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